EDITORIAL - A driver for all other rights

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as World Press Freedom Day in 1993. This was years before social media became pervasive, changing news consumption patterns, and with anonymity online facilitating the spread of disinformation and misinformation.

This challenge to traditional media business models and the erosion of fact-based reporting have weakened democratic institutions and good governance. Free elections underpin the democratic principle of government of, by and for the people. But elections, to have integrity and credibility, must be based on facts with integrity, allowing voters to make informed choices. Journalists, who have the responsibility to provide such facts, must confront the new challenges posed by disinformation, on top of the traditional threats to press freedom that persist especially in the Philippines.

This 30th year of World Press Freedom Day is being marked on the 75th year of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the preamble of this landmark declaration, four fundamental freedoms are outlined: freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from fear, and freedom from want – in that order.

It is significant that freedom of expression is ranked first. As the United Nations is pointing out on this special day, freedom of speech or expression, with media freedom an essential component, enables all other human rights. This is the theme of World Press Freedom Day 2023: “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights.”

In a draft concept note, the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization stated: “The right to freedom of expression and its corollary, the right to access information, allow us to seek, receive and impart information, ideas, concepts and beliefs across borders and cultures. And in this exercise, the media and journalists play an essential role: they help verify and disseminate facts, they create spaces for ideas to be debated and for the voiceless to be heard, and they render complex matters intelligible for the public at large.”

UNESCO adds: “The crucial importance of press freedom in upholding human rights and the impact of its limitations on all fundamental freedoms has been made particularly clear during recent emergencies that have affected the world, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to electoral crises, armed conflicts, or environmental issues. Yet, attempts to silence the media continue to multiply around the globe, with old methods of censorship, violence and harassment being accompanied by increasingly pervasive digital attacks.”

In the Philippines, journalists face not only threats of censorship, harassment, digital attacks and shutdown of their organizations, but also murder. With these threats to press freedom, other basic rights are also threatened.